(Unity) weapon switching, destroying previous weapon after switch

When I switch weapons, the old weapon does not get destroyed so you end up with 2 functioning guns on the screen. I have tried to destroy the gameobject using Destroy(currentWeapon) but with no luck. Also, I use an empty gameobject attached to the player prefab which is where the gun gets instantiated to. The problem is I need 2 different gameobjects so different guns can sit in different positions. I have made the two empty gameobjects but I need help making them switch when the gun is switched.